Point of Law: Employment and Service matter - Post of Lecturer - Appointment of - Court direct Respondents shall consider case of petitioner, in terms of observations made hereinabove, for engagement/ appointment as Lecturer in subject of Manipuri on contract basis against seats reserved for differently abled persons and in particular, against seat reserved for the persons suffering from blindness or low visions

JUDGMENT :

[1] Heard Ms. N. Savitri, learned Advocate appearing for the petitioner and Mr. Th. Vashum, learned Government Advocate for the respondents.

[2] By the instant writ petition, the petitioner has prayed for issuing a writ of mandamus or any other appropriate writ to the respondents to recommend the name of the petitioner for appointment to the post of Lecturer in Manipuri under the category of PWD (blindness and low vision category).

[3.1] According to the petitioner, he is a physically handicapped person belonging to category of visually handicapped person. The Director of Education(S), Government of Manipur issued a Notification dated 06-07-2018 inviting applications from amongst the eligible candidates for appointment of 688 Lecturers in different subjects on contract basis. As per the said Notification, the mode of selection ought to be on the basis of written test and personal interview with weightage of 80% and 20% respectively. It has further been stated in the said Notification that there will be reservation for the differently abled persons as per the existing norms.

[3.2] Section 34 of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 (hereinafter referred to as “the Act, 2016”) provides that every appropriate Government shall appoint in every Government establishment, not less than four percent (ie. 4%) of the total number of vacancies in the cadre strength to be filled with persons with benchmark disabilities of which, one percent (1%) each shall be reserved for persons with benchmark disabilities as mentioned therein. As per the provisions of Section 34 thereof, the number of posts to be reserved for the persons with disabilities will be 26 i.e. 4% of 688, out of which 6 posts are to be specifically reserved for the persons belonging to blindness or low vision category i.e. 1% of 4%.

[3.3] Pursuant to the said Notification dated 06-07-2018, the petitioner applied for the post of Lecturer in Manipuri; appeared the written test examination and was recommended for appearing in the interview vide order dated 17-11-2018 issued by the Director of Education (S), Government of Manipur. Altogether 19 PWD candidates got through the written test and appeared for the interview. When the final selection list was notified vide letter dated 25-11-2019 issued by the Under Secretary (Education/S), Government of Manipur, only 13 PWD candidates were found to have been recommended, out of which 2 PWD candidates belonging to the visually handicapped (blindness and low vision) category were recommended. The said recommendation did not show the list of candidates in order of merit, thereby creating a room for fabrication in the matter relating to reservation for the differently abled persons. As per the provisions of Section 34, the State Government ought to have recommended the names of 6 candidates in respect of the category of blindness & low vision.

[3.4] The process of selection was very much in contravention with the provisions of Article 14, 16 of the Constitution of India and the provisions of the Act, 2016, as a result of which the petitioner had been denied the appointment to the post of Lecturer in Manipuri. Hence, the instant writ petition has been filed by the petitioner.

[4] The stand of the respondents as indicated in their affidavit filed by the Dy. Secretary (Education/S), Government of Manipur is that as per the OM dated 11-11-2009 issued by the Department of Personnel & Administrative Reforms (Personnel Division), Government of Manipur, the seats to be reserved for the differently abled persons in the State was 3% of the vacancies in Group A, B, C and D posts with 1% each for the persons suffering from (i) blindness or low vision; (ii) hearing impairment and (iii) locomotor palsy. The total 688 posts for appointment to the posts of Lecturers on contract basis were distributed to 22 subjects including 100 posts for the subject of Manipuri. Since the appointment of 42 posts of different tribal dialects had been deferr